Love Conquers All
by aroseofmanyleaves
Summary: Why did everything have to be such a secret? Why did it matter if she was the headmistress and he was the site manager?  After prom night, Rob surprises Karen with his impressive waltzing skills. Karen/Rob, because I love 'em.


At any secondary school, prom night for Year Twelve and Thirteen is one of the most important dates in the school calendar, requiring more security than if Barack Obama decided to visit on a whim – especially at a school like Waterloo Road. There had been many a prom night at this infamous school that had involved severe drug abuse, far too much alcohol, lots of public snogging with your best friend's boyfriend and, worst of all, the one that Karen had read about from the 1998 archive, fires.

In preparation for this night, Karen had four squadrons of officers on call (better safe than sorry) and she had gotten Rob to install twenty or so fire extinguishers in and around the main hall. Of course what she hadn't anticipated with the fire extinguishers was that a group of boys would set these off and spray foam everywhere. However, apart from that technically minor incident, all had gone to plan and the evening had been rather enjoyable; the live music was suited to everyone's tastes, the food had been ordered in from a Michelin star restaurant and, as far as Karen knew, there had been no 'visitors' from other schools breaking in or gate crashing like last year.

She, thinking about the whole evening as a mother now, was so proud of Jess and Harry. Jess had looked so beautiful that evening with her lilac floor length dress and her hair pinned up. Aiden had been completely taken aback by her stunning appearance. And Harry too looked so very handsome and charming. Her children made her so happy, but even they could not make up for the hole in her heart since last year. She hadn't felt properly like herself since Charlie had left. Since she had found out he was cheating on her, the lying man.

But Karen Fisher was making do. She was so tied up with all the problems surrounding this school that she hardly had even a second to think about herself. Until he came into the picture, that was.

Rob Scotcher was neither rich nor of high class, a 'site manager' (posh name for janitor – his words, not hers) and he and Karen were physical leagues apart. But he was vastly intelligent, witty and really rather sweet, so, astoundingly quickly, she had tried to become better acquainted with him, wanting to get to know him. He told her a lot of stuff he had never shared with anyone before, his Open University course for example. Several weeks ago he had taken her for dinner and, let's just say, they became a _lot_ better acquainted that evening. Since then, they had grown more and more romantically involved, but they still had to keep everything a secret. They worked in a school after all, and rumours circulated fast and to be honest, they didn't want their relationship to be the subject of gossip.

At the present moment, Karen was sat in her chair behind her desk in the office. She yawned loudly before glancing at the clock; it was just gone half past three in the morning. She had no idea why she was still here, but she needed to shepherd everyone out before leaving and now she really couldn't be bothered to go home. She had slept in school before.

Something was bothering her now though. Strangely, throughout the entire evening, Karen had not caught a single glimpse of Rob. He was the site manager for goodness sake, so why wasn't he here? She had spoken briefly to Aiden who had been rather cryptic in both his greeting and his answers and was, if totally honest, not much help whatsoever.

The hall where the prom had been held was in a bit of a state, as would be expected. There was foam everywhere, and food was mashed into the floor and there was general mess that you would expect. Especially, there were lots and lots of bottles of alcohol seeing as the Year Thirteen's kept smuggling gin in. The clear up would have to wait until tomorrow, Karen had decided before strolling the dark, gloomy hallways back to her office.

Sitting in her swivel chair, Karen kicked off her heels and put her feet up on her desk in contentment. She closed her eyes after running her fingers through her hair in exhaustion and made herself comfortable. Karen was wearing a knee length cobalt blue dress with white and grey flowers printed across it. It was demure yet stylish and it suited her figure nicely. Letting her thoughts wonder, Karen slowly began to drift off into a light, yet pleasant doze. The whole school was silent and empty and although it was a rather creepy thought of being totally alone in this huge building, Karen felt totally peaceful. She did not hear her office door creak open and she did not hear the footsteps approaching her either. But she certainly awoke with a start when a hand wrapped around her mouth, smothering her.

Her eyes flung open violently and she tried to scream and wriggle free of the grip, but it was too strong. Beginning to lower her levels of resistance, fear flooded all through Karen, but she calmed down slightly when she felt a strand of her hair being brushed from her ear and a voice whispered,

'Ssh. Ssh. Calm down Karen, it's just me,'

The hand drew away from her mouth and she span around in her swivel chair to see Rob standing there, surprisingly wearing a tuxedo. A blush crept into her cheeks and she gasped in relief, at least she hadn't bitten him.

'Oh Rob, thank God it's you. Sorry you startled me quite a lot,' she explained reasonably and he nodded his head.

'Sorry about that. Didn't want you to wake up and start screaming and I wanted to surprise you slightly. You looked…beautiful,' he murmured in her ear, placing one hand on her cheek.

'Rob, what are you still doing here?' Karen asked in a hushed tone, not needing to speak any louder due to their intimacy. He pulled away slightly, a huge grin plastered across her face, 'And why are you wearing a tuxedo?'

He took her hand and pulled her with him over to the door of the office, 'I have a surprise for you.'

X – X – X

Karen was blind. She was stumbling and tottering along, barefooted, in a corridor of her school, but she could not see; the reason? Someone was restricting her vision. Rob stood behind her, walking slowly and cautiously as not to trip her over and his hands were gently covering her azure eyes with his rough fingers. He had been leading her for approximately eight minutes and Karen had still no idea where they were going. As much as she was severely intrigued, she was beginning to get a bit annoyed. He steered her to the left and she heard a door creak open. He led her through the doors for about another ten seconds before, slowly (just to annoy her a bit) removing his hands from her face.

It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the light in here. Not that there was much, only the light streaming from the millions of stars splattered across the pitch black sky through the windows. They were in the main hall. Karen estimated it was about an hour since everyone was gone and yet, the main hall was, well, clean. _Really _clean. All the foam that had been splayed across the walls and floor, all the litter and glass bottles were gone and the room was entirely empty apart from a single speaker and an i-Pod docking station on the stage where the band had been.

'It's taken me the hour since everyone left,' Rob muttered impressively, waving a hand around at his handiwork.

'Wow Rob. But,' she began, 'this still doesn't explain the tuxedo…'

He beamed widely and pulled a remote out of his pocket and pointed it at the tiny docking station on the stage, with the blue iPod inserted in it.

_Have I told you lately that I love you? Have I told you there's no one else above you?_

'Mrs Fisher, may I have the delight of this dance?' he asked intuitively, stepping backwards, bowing, and leaning out a hand towards her.

She chuckled merrily before replying sweetly with, 'Oh Mister Scotcher, I do believe you may.'

She placed both her hands in his and he pulled her close to him, so close their noses were almost touching. He began to move and shuffle his feet and she tried to follow before being pulled into a full-blown waltz. She laughed as he led so confidently and she hastened to follow his footwork. They glided across the hall like they had been doing it for years. He spun her out from his chest and then pulled her back in. They both laughed when she tripped slightly and fell into him and, quite breathlessly, he pulled her into a sweet, passionate kiss. His lips moved gracefully against hers and she wrapped her hands around the back of his neck. They had kissed before, but this time it was different, it was special.

_You fill my life with laughter, somehow you make it better. _

They both pulled away at the same time and she rested her head on his chest. He stroked her hair comfortingly and lovingly. She was so sick of keeping this a secret. She wanted to be able to kiss him like this whenever they wanted, who cares if she's the headmistress and he's the site manager? Surely love conquers all.

He kissed her again, this time more softly, more lovingly, like he could tell what she was thinking. He was tired of it too.

However, someone was going to fix this for them soon; someone who had been filming the prom (Miss Chaudry's idea to make a DVD for them of their night – stupid really) and forgotten to turn the camera off…

X – X – X

So, three weeks later when everyone had a copy of the prom DVD, pretty much the whole school knew about Karen and Rob. Well, at least they didn't have to tell everyone individually…


End file.
